Chapter 81 — The Talisman Painter Who Guards the Village

The Watcher

The morning mist was still hanging thinly on Vân Tiêu Peak when a night-duty disciple rushed to the guesthouse and knocked on the door to wake Thanh Việt before dawn. Diệp Sương, who had been waking from fitful sleep for several consecutive nights after the cremation ceremony, heard loud footsteps in the hallway, quickly put on her coat, and walked out.

"There are strange footprints near Cảnh Linh Đài," the night duty disciple said, his voice still shaking because he had just run a long distance. "They don't belong to anyone in the sect. I discovered them while I was on second-watch patrol. I wanted to call right away, but I was afraid of causing an alarm, so I had to lie in ambush and observe until morning."

*

Thanh Việt arrived first, kneeling at the edge of the observation deck, his fingers tracing a shoe print in the moist soil that had not yet completely dried after the dewy night. "This shoe print does not belong to a sect disciple," he said, his voice low. "Shoe sole is thin, style of capital city officials, not mountain shoes."

Diệp Sương bent down to look closely, a cold feeling running down her spine as she remembered the night before, when she had stood alone on the stage, grinding the last bit of ink to draw the An Mien talisman for Tạ Vân Khê. She thought she had been alone.

"Someone was watching me last night," he said softly, his voice still filled with shock. "The moment I drew that last talisman."

*

The news spread quickly during an emergency meeting convened that morning in the small hall next to the sect master's office. Thư Khải Dương, Húc Bá Nguyên, Chung Nhã Trúc, and the few remaining elders of the council sat around the table, the atmosphere was much more tense than any previous meeting, even though the biggest battle had been over in less than two weeks.

"Who is brave enough to venture up to the top of Vân Tiêu, right in the middle of heavy security after the battle, just to stand and watch a disciple draw a spell?" Chung Nhã Trúc asked, her voice full of doubt. "Those were not the actions of a common petty thief or spy."

"Unless," Diệp Sương said, her eyes hardening, "that person doesn't need to steal anything. He only needs to know for certain that you're still alive, still here, and still a threat."

*

At that moment, the sound of hurried footsteps rang out in the hallway. A gatekeeper's disciple hurriedly ran in, followed by a figure wearing a simple gray shirt with frayed hems, messy hair, and a haggard face as if he had walked a long way without stopping.

"Congratulations to Nghi Lam?" Diệp Sương stood up, unable to hide her surprise.

The young clerk knelt down in the middle of the hall, his breathing ragged. "Please accept the sect leader... I have nowhere else to go."

*

"I escaped from Khâm Vân Ti three days ago," Chúc Nghi Lam said, her voice still shaking, her hand clutching a small bundle of cloth to her chest as if it were the most precious thing in her life. "After the Supervisor discovered that documents were copied and smuggled out, he sent someone to search the entire library. I knew I would be exposed sooner or later, so I only had time to take the most important things with me and then run."

She unwrapped the cloth and laid out on the table a stack of thin parchment with dense writing, some of the pages had yellowed over time. "Here's what I dug up from the old archives before I ran away—records of a special survey program approved fifteen years ago, codenamed the Special Coordination Line, headed by Master Lỗ Khắc Viên himself from the very beginning."

*

The entire lobby was plunged into heavy silence. Húc Bá Nguyên clenched his hands on the chair, his face visibly pale.

"Fifteen years," Thư Khải Dương repeated, his voice low as if he was calculating something in his mind. "It's not a budding conspiracy. It's an entire system that has been quietly operating for nearly an entire generation."

"I can't read every page," Chúc Nghi Lam continued, her voice choked. "But I've seen enough to know that this program isn't just exploiting the Hạn Thủy ravine or the Thâm Vụ Forest. It's spread throughout many areas of Cửu Vân, under the name of periodic surveys, lasting year after year, each time only withdrawing a little bit, small enough for no one to notice, but large enough, cumulatively, to cause most of the large and small Linh Mạch disturbances over the past fifteen years."

*

Diệp Sương picked up a page of paper, her hand trembling slightly as she skimmed over the small lines recording the coordinates, date, and level of Linh Mạch withdrawal at each point. Her eyes stopped at a painfully familiar name.

"Tùng Lĩnh Village," she whispered, her voice almost soundless.

The whole room turned to look at her. Thanh Việt stepped forward immediately, placing his hand on her shoulder, his eyes filled with worry. "Sương, you don't need to read if—"

"No," she interrupted, her voice determined even though her whole body was still shaking. "I need to know. If this program was active fifteen years ago, then..." She didn't finish her sentence; she simply looked down at the page in her hand as the numbers and coordinates blurred before her eyes.

*

"I won't rush to any conclusions right now," Tất Bá Kỳ, who had just returned from the Tiêu Sa Pass to the sect to report on the border situation, spoke up from the door, where he had just entered just in time to hear the story. "This page only records one coordinate and one number, which is not enough to tell the whole truth. But if you want to learn more, a more complete record is definitely still in the main archive of Khâm Vân Ti in the capital Lệ Dương." Húc Bá Nguyên, who had been sitting silently since the beginning of the meeting, finally spoke, his voice heavy with something difficult to name. "I may... may know part of the reason why that program ran so smoothly for so long without anyone on the council speaking up."

The entire hall turned to look at him, the sudden silence like a hanging knife.

*

"Not today," he said, avoiding everyone's gaze, standing up and leaving the table before anyone could question him further. "I need time to organize my thoughts before saying what I know. Please give me a few days, master."

Thư Khải Dương watched him leave, his eyes were complicated but did not stop him. "Okay," he said quietly, then turned to the rest. "We will officially open a comprehensive investigation, without delay for any reason. Diệp Sương, Cố Thanh Việt, you will be the ones to directly collect evidence, along with Tất Bá Kỳ and Ms. Chúc Nghi Lam, under the official protection of the sect."

*

Before the meeting was completely dismissed, Âu Bội Nhi entered through the side door, pulled Chúc Nghi Lam to a corner, and gave her a bowl of steaming porridge and a thin blanket. "Let's eat something first," Âu Bội Nhi said, her voice warm and without any hesitation even though it was just the first time we met. "Running such a long distance, no matter how important the news is, you must first preserve your strength."

Chúc Nghi Lam looked up at her, her eyes red. "I thought that when I ran away from Khâm Vân Ti, I would be alone to face everything. I didn't expect this place to accept me so easily, even though I'm just an anonymous clerk who never knew anyone here."

"You risked your life for the truth," Chung Nhã Trúc replied, sitting down next to her, her voice gentle but firm. "In this sect, although not everyone is brave enough to act like you, those who still maintain common sense know how to appreciate such a person."

*

Tất Bá Kỳ, standing behind after everyone had gradually left, approached Diệp Sương, his voice deeper than usual. "Captain Sầm Nguyên Trạch told me to leave a message, if you need any help from Tiêu Sa Pass for this investigation, just let someone know, he will send troops to support immediately without delay."

"Thank you, Captain Sầm Nguyên Trạch," Diệp Sương replied, nodding as she tried to suppress her emotions. "And thank you, too, for not leaving this path even when everything seemed deadlocked."

Tất Bá Kỳ smiled softly and patted his shoulder. "Little Tơ in Diêm Cốc village still asks about you every time I stop by. I think, one day soon, when all this is over, you should take the time to come back and visit her once for all." Diệp Sương nodded, a fragile smile flickering amid the burden weighing on her shoulders. "I promise."

*

The meeting ended, each person carrying their own burden in their hearts. Diệp Sương stood alone by the window, looking down at the practice field where the morning sunlight was gradually spreading, her hand still holding tightly the page with the name of Tùng Lĩnh Village.

Thanh Việt walked over and stood beside her, saying nothing and quietly staying at her side as he had all night beside Tạ Vân Khê's body.

"If the numbers on this page are true," Diệp Sương said softly, her voice still shaking, "then the Linh Mạch disturbance that took away my parents in the past was not a natural disaster."

She looked up at him, her eyes pained but glowing with a new determination, sharper than at any time before during the long journey.

“Whoever was behind the figure last night,” he said, “could very well be the one who made me an orphan, before any of us could even say his name.”

Outside, the morning wind blew through Cảnh Linh Đài, bringing with it the remaining cold air of the night, as a reminder that the road ahead was now not only to find justice for the whole of Cửu Vân, but also to find the truth for its own life, a truth that had been buried for fifteen long years.